"Now answer my question. Are you hurt anywhere?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

I considered him. "Well my stomach hurts a little."

He laughed lightly. I think it was the first time I'd seen him do so without feeling like it was at my expense.

I cleared my throat. "What are you even doing here?"

He leaned back a little and removed his hand.

"Ikovos was worried about you. He said you were taking too long and some guy named Garret might have gotten you."

I was sure he had no idea what he was talking about, but he delivered the line with such confidence it baffled me for a moment.

"Why didn't Ikovos come to see if I was okay?"

He didn't answer, but his features seemed to change with the question. I had no clue what to or where from. He slowly stood up, and when I looked at his face again it was cold. Then there was that smile. Like he was laughing at me.

"Can I get up now?" I asked.

He made a gesture with his hand that I guessed meant yes.

I waited for a few seconds then got up myself. One second he won't let me sit up, and the next he doesn't even offer me a hand.

By the time I was standing steadily his smile was gone.

"I came to tell you, you're staying here tonight."

He looked forceful, but I recanted.

"Ikovos already said I could go with him."

"Yeah, well, Ikovos was wrong. You're staying here."

I tried to inch up a bit taller. "Why?"

"Because I said so."

I scoffed. "That's a logical fallacy."

"I don't care."

"How can you not care?"

"Because I'm right." He didn't blink.

I made my best superior sounding voice. "You're not going to convince anyone of that with irrelevant statements."

"I'm not trying to convince anyone."

"You mean you're making me stay here?"

"Isn't that what I've been saying."

I stared indignantly at him, trying not to get distracted by the growing smirk in his eyes. "You can't make me do anything."

"I just made you stay on the ground, didn't I?"

"I could have gotten up if I wanted to," I declared, knowing full well it wasn't true.

"Oh really," he said before reaching down to pull my legs, flipping me back onto the ground.

Seconds later he was standing over me. One leg on each side.

"I can't believe you just did that!"

He was in full smirk mode now. If I wasn't so blasted scared I might have knocked him over.

"You're staying here," he said.

"Didn't we just do this . . ."

He crossed his arms. "Yes, and I won."

I raised my eyebrows snobbishly. "Knocking someone over isn't winning, it's cheating."

"Don't be a sore loser."

I glared at him with all the angry force I could muster, then decided that I should knock him over.

It was a pitiful attempt. His legs were held firmly in place. I sighed exasperatedly.

He made a clicking sound. "Sinking down to your opponent's level now? I thought better of you."

I laughed once. "You are amazing."

"I know."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"I know."

. . . I stared at him. He was completely and unmistakably everything I wasn't.

I looked away and started to get up. He stepped back to let me.

In that moment I think he actually thought he had won . . . he obviously didn't know how ridiculously stubborn I was.

Without flinching, I picked up my knapsack and looked at him. "I'm going with you."

He swept his hand through his hair and looked up at me amusedly.

What followed was something I never would have thought I'd the guts to do. I gave him my best smile, walked close in front of him, and grabbed his hand. All the while I kept eye contact. . . .

It was very, very hard.

He was the confused one now. "Ah, Eve, what are you?-" He stopped at the sound of a click and followed it down. "You can't be serious." He lifted up his hand and waved it around. Mine followed in tow, linked by the slim metal cuffs I'd packed.

As he continued to move our hands around, I couldn't help but laugh, partly because of how ridiculous I was, but mostly because it was the only way for me to survive being this embarrassed.

"You are an absolute mental case." He was looking at me now, but I didn't look back. "This is unbelievable. . . .You are unbelievable."

I was thinking about saying I know.

"Don't even try it," he said.

I successfully stifled a laugh, but couldn't keep the smile off my face. He'd been messing with me since the first time I'd met him. This was just payback.

The thought filled me with enough confidence to spare him a glance. He really was looking at me like I was crazy . . . I felt more than a little stupid.

Much to my surprise he shook his head and started chuckling. "I'm guessing you don't have the key."

I bit my lip. "No . . . I think it's upstairs."

"Well," he said. "Since you can't climb up there with two hands, I doubt you'll have much luck with one."

I looked away coldly.

"Hey," He chipped my on the chin, bringing my head up, "if you're gonna play a prank at least lighten up a bit. . . . I'm not gonna eat you."

Ah . . . maybe you should go look in the mirror. I kept the thought to myself as he smiled knowingly.

At this point I was wondering how he had gotten on top when I was the one doing all the tricks.

I watched him look up in the sky and sigh. It was almost dark now.

"We'd better get going," he stated.

"Okay," I said subserviently.

As he turned around and started off I thought I saw the corner of his mouth go up.

We didn't talk the entire way there.

It was completely dark by the time Jaden and I got to our destination. The first thing I saw was a glowing yellow, falling through the trees. As we got closer I realized it was a light shining out of the window of a small cabin.

We weren't more than a mile from Tiver, but we'd gone quite a ways around one of the high hills at the city so I was sure we were in a well hidden location.

I suddenly realized we had stopped, or rather Jaden had stopped while I followed along like a loyal puppy. That had more or less been the gist of our trip here. He didn't talk and I was so afraid that I had irreparably annoyed him that I didn't either.

Jaden held up our linked hands. "I hope you know you're getting all the blame for this."

I tried to hide my concern with a shrug, but it didn't really work. I could tell by the way he grinned afterwards.

As I was watching he started walking again. I almost tripped over my feet trying to catch up.

The outside of the cabin was what you might expect, nothing more than some large round logs stacked together with cement filling. Jaden opened the door to reveal the inside was much the same. I followed him into the simple room, my arm dangling awkwardly ahead of me.

The first thing I noticed was a large fire in the left wall. It wasn't at all cozy or cramped like most fireplaces, but instead had a rather large and empty feeling. The rest of the cabin shared the qualities. There was no furniture in sight. Flat wood flooring with a simple maroon rug covered the floor. To my right there were two doors behind a patch of counter. I guessed one must have led to a bathroom, but wasn't sure about the other. The whole place would have looked abandoned if not for the dozens of weapons piled in the corners of the room or leaning against the walls.

Like every location involving the order, I took it all in wide-eyed as Jaden shut the door behind me.

It was then that I first noticed Ikovos, who must have been in one of the other rooms. He held his usual wide smile.

"Evelyn, you're here."

I smiled cheerfully at him, grateful to be around someone that didn't hate me.

He looked to Jaden. "I thought for sure you were going to make her stay."

I checked Jaden's face cautiously. He was looking snide again.

"I was." stated Jaden, then he held up his right hand, linked to my left, in the air in front of Ikovos.

I tried to act nonchalant as Ikovos considered it. "No!" he said in a gasped voice, still looking at Jaden.

He turned to me. "You did this?"

I bit my lip and gave him a 'whoops' face.

He stared at me, then at the cuffs, then back at Jaden, all without a word. I started to fidget as his eyes came on me again.

Then, without warning, he burst out laughing. I mean really laughing. He spoke between gasps. "You mean . . . you mean you guys walked all the way here-" more laughing "- like that!"

I just stood there, pale-faced, not knowing how to react. Jaden gave Ikovos a look to kill, though I don't even think he noticed.

"God, you're worse than her," said Jaden.

I was going to make a pouty face, but before I could I was being pulled to the corner of the room by my hand. Jaden leaned down to grab a thin knife from the floor, then put his hand over mine, balling it into a fist like I was too stupid to not attack the knife with my fingers.

He jabbed the tip of the blade into the keyhole and within seconds the cuff was free of my hand. I watched him do the same to his side.

When he was done he looked up at me. "These-" he held up the cuffs "-are mine now."

I thought about sticking my tongue out at him, but for some reason nodded robotically instead.

"Good." He released his gaze.